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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23960191">The Fruit of First Disobedience</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thundercrackfic/pseuds/thundercrackfic'>thundercrackfic</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Good Omens (TV), Paradise Lost - John Milton</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Avoiding the Son in Paradise Lost as much as possible, Aziraphale gets his first corporation, Canon - Good Omens (Book &amp; TV Combination), Crowley's Name is Crawly | Crawley (Good Omens), F/M, Gabriel's troops are catty, Look it's consistent with Paradise Lost, Maybe Hastur tried tempting Eve first, Michael smites Satan, Scene: Garden of Eden (Good Omens), War in Heaven (Good Omens)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 15:48:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,203</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23960191</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thundercrackfic/pseuds/thundercrackfic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The War in Heaven is over, and God has created a new world. There's only one threat to all this bliss, and an angel needs to go to Eden to issue a warning to the first humans.<br/>------------<br/>This fic is an attempt to tell the story of <i>Paradise Lost</i> in a way that is canon-compliant with <i>Good Omens</i>. I've substituted Aziraphale for the <i>Paradise Lost</i> character Raphael, who is God's messenger and storyteller to Adam and Eve. Paradise Lost!Raphael turns out to have a surprising amount in common with Aziraphale, from his enjoyment of food to his adorable blushing at questions from a handsome human.</p><p>I'm posting as I write. Currently halfway through <i>Paradise Lost</i> (finished 6 of 12 books).</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adam/Eve (Paradise Lost), Aziraphale &amp; Gabriel (Good Omens)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Eve Dreams</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Eve has a disturbing dream.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Eve dreamed.</p><p>Eve hadn’t experienced much yet; she was only days old, after all. Her dreams were constrained by her experience. She dreamed of Eden, of plants and flowers and fruits. Of her companion, Adam, and of his adoration of her. Of lovemaking. Her dreams were blissful.</p><p>Or, they had been.</p><p>“Eve, my flower, my precious gift, wake up! It’s morning! It’s another day! Praise be to God!”</p><p>The morning seemed too bright. She groaned.</p><p>“Buttercup, what’s the matter?”</p><p>“I—” She rubbed her eyes. “I had a weird dream.”</p><p>Adam’s face was a study in concern. He took up her hand and held her close. “Tell me all about it.”</p><p>“I heard your voice,” Eve said. “You were calling me. I looked for you. I walked until I found the Forbidden Tree. It was so beautiful.” Eve looked at the trees around her now. They were pretty enough in the rose-tinged light of dawn, but they didn’t match the shimmering beauty of the Tree in her dream. “There was an angel standing next to it. His hair was beautifully curled. He was looking at the tree, too.”</p><p>“My loveliest rose petal, we were told not to touch that tree,” Adam said, worried.</p><p>“Yes, I know,” Eve said. “I didn’t. This was in my dream.”</p><p>“All right,” Adam said. But he sounded troubled. He hugged Eve closer. “Please, tell me more.”</p><p>“The angel looked at the tree and said: ‘Oh, fair plant, does no one here seek to ease your load? Neither human nor angel? To taste your sweet, sweet fruit? It doesn’t matter who forbids it. Why would God put this tree right in the middle of the Garden, if they didn’t want anyone to eat it?’ Then he reached up and plucked a fruit, and he bit into it.” Eve felt the horror on her face, saw it mirrored on Adam’s.</p><p>“And then?” Adam asked.</p><p>Eve closed her eyes, recalling the rapturous expression on the angel’s face. “He said, ‘Oh, you were beautiful on the tree; but you’re so much more sweet to taste.’ Then—Adam!—he looked at me. He talked to me.”</p><p>“It was only a dream,” Adam said. He ran his fingers through her hair and asked softly: “What did he say to you?”</p><p>Eve curled up against Adam. “He said: ‘It’s funny that God put this tree here, and then forbade you to eat it, isn’t it? Did God tell you that this fruit could make you into a god yourself? And why would that be a bad thing? Aren’t gods more honorable than men? Wouldn’t Earth be better if it had more gods? Here, why don’t you try? Eat it and you’ll be a god, too. You’re happy now, I know, but you could be happier. Now you walk on the ground; you could be flying like the angels. You could fly <em>with</em> the angels. Even go to Heaven. Drop in on God. Live up there with them.’ And then—” Eve paused.</p><p>“And then?” Adam prompted, his hand stilled.</p><p>“And then – he came up to me. His—his hair smelled good. He held the fruit up to my mouth. I could smell that, too. It smelled so good, my mouth was watering. I had to bite it. I bit it.”</p><p>Adam sucked in a breath.</p><p>“I bit it,” Eve said, and she couldn’t school her enraptured expression. “What he said came to pass. I had wings. I flew above the clouds. I saw all the Earth stretched out underneath me. It was wonderful, Adam. The whole Earth. Mountains and forests and plains, it was beautiful. There is so much out there. And then—”</p><p>“And then?” Adam asked, a third time now.</p><p>“And then I woke up.” Eve felt the loss of that vision, of the freedom of flight, of the endless horizons of the whole Earth.</p><p>Adam bit his lip. He tucked Eve’s head against his shoulder and held her close. “Well. You wouldn’t do that when you were awake. Right?”</p><p>“No, of course not,” Eve said.</p><p>“It was just – imagination. A passing idea. Your dreams aren’t you. You don’t make your dreams. Something else must have made that dream. I’m sure of it.” Eve shut her eyes and relaxed against Adam’s chest. Inhaled his smell. Used the sensations of his warm skin and strong arms and spicy odor to pull her back to Earth, away from the enticement of the dream.</p><p>"I love you," Adam said, kissing her forehead.</p><p>There was something she could be sure of. It chased the terrible thrill of the dream away. "I love you, too," Eve said, kissing him.</p><p>“Let’s go work!” Adam said, patting her shoulder. “Work will make us feel better. The blackberry bushes are full, we can go pick them. That’s some sweet fruit that’s not forbidden, right?”</p><p>He held out his hand and helped her to her feet. She smiled at him, and they walked together, hand in hand, to go pick berries. Eve’s heart swelled with love for Adam, but she couldn’t completely rid herself of the feeling of guilt. Why was that wretched tree even there? A tear fell from each of her eyes, and she surreptitiously wiped them with her hair, so as not to trouble Adam.</p><p>The dream was forgotten by both of them half an hour later as they picked berries, intercepting half of them on the way to their mouths. Feeding them to each other. They got blackberry juice on their lips and fingers, and Adam playfully kissed a stain off of Eve’s cheek, and then she sucked dark stains off his fingers, or tried to, and before long they were down on the soft grass enjoying God’s gifts to them.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>In <a href="https://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/book_5/text.shtml">Dartmouth's online edition of <i>Paradise Lost</i></a>, this text covers Book V lines 28-136.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Earthly Assignment</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Aziraphael* gets a job.</p><p>*yes, I know. The spelling choice will become clear later.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Ah! And you are—”</p><p>“Aziraphael, my lord.”</p><p>“Ah, yes, Aziraphale! I've heard you're quite the sociable spirit! We have a very important job for you,” Gabriel grinned.</p><p>“Actually, my name is—”</p><p>“We’re sending you to Earth.”</p><p>Aziraphael forgot his objections to Gabriel’s mispronunciation. “To—to Earth?”</p><p>“Yes! I know! Exciting, right?”</p><p>Exciting hardly covered it. They’d just finished tidying up Heaven following the War. It had taken days. Meanwhile God had been away with this project; all the Powers and Principalities had been abuzz, but few of them had seen it.</p><p>“We need you to warn them.”</p><p>Aziraphael felt he might have missed something in his reverie.</p><p>“I’m—I’m very sorry? Warn them about what, exactly?”</p><p>“About The Adversary, of course! Who knows what dastardly deeds those Fallen Angels might get up to.”</p><p>This confused Aziraphael. “I don’t follow? They’re gone? They ran away?” The horrible images were still fresh in Aziraphael’s mind, of the fearsome lightning tearing across Heaven, the howls of pain from the wounded angels of the rebel’s army. The rebels had pulled Heaven’s mountains down upon themselves to try to find shelter from God’s wrath, but it had been no use. They’d finally all thrown themselves out of Heaven entirely to flee, and suddenly all was quiet and back to normal – but with fewer mountains and only a third as many angels. Aziraphael was still missing friends. His own wounds hadn’t entirely healed yet. How could the Fallen be prepared to plan anything? Aziraphael didn't manage to keep all these thoughts from his face.</p><p>“We have…information,” Gabriel said, conspirationally.</p><p>“Information. I see,” said Aziraphael, though he didn’t. “If I could ask—”</p><p>“Our information suggests that it’s possible the Fallen can get into Eden.”</p><p>“That’s terrible!” Aziraphael said. But, he said, troubled: “Surely God can prevent them? Right? She’s all-powerful?”</p><p>“God has other things to do! Like creating Earth.”</p><p>There seemed to be a gap in this logic, but Aziraphael was sure that he must be the one missing something here. "Might your information extend as to what the Adversary is planning?"</p><p>"Yes!" Gabriel said, still conspirational. "We hear that he might try tempting."</p><p>"Tempting? To what, may I ask?"</p><p>"To use their free will!" Gabriel said, scandalized.</p><p>Aziraphael had heard of free will. A new idea -- that God's creations may choose their own paths, instead of following God's will as instructed. It sounded rather terrifying. "That's terrifying," he said.

</p><p>“I know! So we need somebody to go warn the humans. And we’ve picked you!”</p><p>“Me?” Aziraphael looked around to see if there might be some mistake. He was hardly the most distinguished of angels. “Are you sure?”</p><p>“Of course! I have total confidence that you won’t let us down.”</p><p>“Thank you!” Aziraphael said, though he wasn’t sure what he was promising to do. It was nice, though, to have someone as important as Gabriel express so much trust in him. He must have distinguished himself on the battlefield in a way he didn’t quite remember. It had been awful, truly.</p><p>“Just go tell them to watch out for the Adversary. Keep alert for any, you know, Hellish plans.”</p><p>If the Archangel Gabriel said he had faith in Aziraphael, then Aziraphael must be the right angel for this job. “Certainly. No plans. Beware of Hell’s angels. Right.”</p><p>Gabriel beamed. “Exactly, you’ve got it,” he said. “You’ll need a human corporation to be able to walk on Earth. There’s a new department for that. Get a good strong one. Gotta make a good impression on those humans, right?”</p><p>Still a little confused, Aziraphael left Gabriel’s presence to hunt down the new Corporations Department. He still wasn’t sure what he’d done to deserve such a plum job, but he felt sure things were looking up. The War was over, God had created an entirely new world, and he was going to get to visit. Everything was coming up roses.</p><p>Coming up roses? What did that expression mean? What was a rose? The word was in his mind, where it hadn’t been before. Something to do with Earth. Well, he’d find out presently.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>In <a href="https://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/book_5/text.shtml">Dartmouth's online version of <i>Paradise Lost</i></a>, this scene covers Book V lines 219 to 245.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Angels' Gossip</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Before he heads down to Earth, Aziraphael runs into Ithuriel and Zephon, other footsoldiers in Gabriel's division. They tell Aziraphael about the Fallen angel they'd discovered whispering into Eve's ear.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aziraphael wheeled down from Gabriel’s domain toward the shiny new edifice of the Earthly Works Department. It was easy to find, since it had been built at the center of the battlefield where God and Satan had clashed. It was intended to be both memory of, and a promise to replace, the angels who’d Fallen as a result of the conflict.</p><p>Approaching it, Aziraphael spied some friends, also under Gabriel’s command; he recognized their auras, although they sported bewinged human corporations. “Ithuriel! Zephon!” called Aziraphael.</p><p>The two waved arms and wings and approached. They gently brushed wingtips in greeting. Ithuriel’s wings were long and red, an echo of her hair and tall body; Zephon’s were short and round like his curly dark locks and round, dark eyes. “You’ve been down to Earth, I can see! That’s very exciting,” Aziraphael said.</p><p>Ithuriel laughed melodically. “It was at first, but Gabriel has us doing the most boring exercises,” she said. Aziraphael looked a question at both of them.</p><p>“He’s got us competing with each other in feats of strength,” Zephon said, white teeth flashing as he grinned. “It’s a little ridiculous if you ask me; wrestling in a human corporation is like fighting with your wheels tied together! But Gabriel’s really into it and when he’s happy, everyone’s happy, so…” He did something with one shoulder that Aziraphael would later learn to call a <em>shrug</em>.</p><p>“Oh but something really exciting did happen yesterday,” Ithuriel ventured. “One of the Fallen showed up in Eden!”</p><p>Aziraphael let his shock and dismay radiate off of him. “Oh, don’t worry, they can’t really do anything but talk,” Zephon said. “He was pathetic, really. In the shape of a warty toad. He wasn’t doing anything but whispering in Eve’s ear.”</p><p>“He asked if you recognized him!” Ithuriel laughed. “As if!”</p><p>“I told him he’d been pretty once, but he sure looked like Hell now, and that he should go away before I smote him,” Zephon said smugly.</p><p>“He hopped off like it was his idea to leave, but all three of us knew he was just running!”</p><p>“Of course, we couldn’t just let him run,” Zephon said. “We corralled him and took him to Gabriel.”</p><p>“Lord, that was a lark,” Ithuriel said. “I’m not ashamed to admit it was fun to see someone talking back to Gabriel. Gabe asked the Fallen what he was doing in Heaven, and do you know what that toad said to him? He said ‘If you’re so smart, why don’t you tell me why I’m here?’ He started trying to make us feel bad for all his suffering in Hell, saying he was only in Eden because Eden was nicer.”</p><p>“Gabriel wasn’t having any of it,” Zephon interrupted. “He said, ‘Wow, you’re really smart; your defecting to Hell was <em>such</em> a big loss to Heaven. But Hell can’t be that bad – you’re the only one here. If it’s so awful down there, why are you the only one up in Eden? I think you’re just the only one who’s too weak for Hell.’”</p><p>“He never!” Aziraphael said.</p><p>Ithuriel and Zephon laughed again and told the rest of the story. The Fallen – whose name they were no longer allowed to say, and who hadn’t been named anything new yet – kept trading insults with Gabriel until Gabriel called up his phalanx of cherubim and God Themself had to intervene to tell the Fallen to beat it back to Hell.</p><p>“Well, I can see why Gabriel wants the humans to be warned,” Aziraphael said.</p><p>“About what?” Zephon asked blankly.</p><p>“About the Fallen! They’d better keep alert for demonic influence. Lord Gabriel has ordered me to go down and talk to them.” He may have been feeling a bit smug. “What are they like? The humans?”</p><p>Ithuriel and Zephon shared a look. “Fine, I guess,” Ithuriel said. “I mean, they’re no angels.”</p><p>Aziraphael waited, inquisitive.</p><p>“They’re simple, you know?” Zephon said. “Kind of weak. These corporations are a fun distraction but I’d rather stretch my wings.”</p><p>“They spend a lot of time picking fruit and naming things in the Garden. God’s just giving them busywork, if you ask me. The Almighty will move on to some other creation before long, I expect.”</p><p>Aziraphael’s smugness may have deflated a little.</p><p>“Ah, well, they’re important to Them for now,” Zephon said. “And hey, you get a corporation, right?”</p><p>“Yes, I’m looking forward to that,” said Aziraphael. “Any advice for an angel new to occupying corporeal reality?”</p><p>Ithuriel and Zephon looked themselves up and down. “It’s—odd,” Ithuriel said. “Bodies have…chemistry, I guess? Like rocks do. But it’s <em>moving</em> chemistry. The chemicals <em>change</em> and it makes you—<em>feel</em> things. Like, the body feels in ways that the mind doesn’t.”</p><p>“Some things with bodies don’t feel good,” Zephon said. “But some really do. It’s weird, but it’s fun.”</p><p>“Oh! Working the body makes the body better at the things you work it at,” Ithuriel offered.</p><p>“Yeah, that one’s really strange; seems like it contradicts entropy, but what do I know?” Zephon said. “Oh, this is important—remember how much Gabriel likes those feats of strength? He likes the strong and agile bodies best. Get one of those. He doesn’t care about height, but strong is important to him.”</p><p>Aziraphael really did try to keep that in mind, but the moment he saw the soft, pale, curly-haired corporation he knew it was for him. It would go so well with his white wings.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The events that Ithuriel and Zephon tell Aziraphael here happen mostly in book IV of Paradise Lost, where it’s Satan, of course, who travels to Eden to whisper in Eve’s ear. But Milton says Satan takes the form of a frog (Book IV line 800), which means that in the Good Omens universe it could be Hastur.<br/>The Fallen don’t have names yet – in Paradise Lost they are un-named in the Fall and are only given names later. It’s implied that the angels still in heaven can recognize the Fallen, but can’t say their names, though it’s never clear whether that’s because the names no longer exist and the angels therefore don’t know them, or if it’s just because they are forbidden to say the names of the Fallen. The names used by the Fallen in Paradise Lost are ones that they are given later, by humans; “Satan” just means “the adversary.”<br/>Whoever the toad is, Satan or Hastur, they pretend to be a lower-class angel and sneak past Uriel who, never having seen a liar before, thinks the angel is a little weird but doesn’t object. Later, Uriel thinks perhaps that angel wasn’t on the up-and-up, and tells Gabriel. Gabriel, ever the bureaucrat, delegates two angels named Ithuriel and Zephon to go check up on the situation, and it’s those two who find the toad whispering in the sleeping Eve’s ear and accost him (lines 786 to 826). The toad and Zephon argue more or less as I’ve written (827 to 861), and then Ithuriel and Zephon take Satan to Gabriel, and Satan and Gabriel really do get in an escalating argument of insults and posturing until God has to intervene (861 to 1015 and the end of Book IV). It’s delightful.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Sociable Spirit</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Aziraphale gets his corporation, travels to Earth, delights at Eden, and meets Adam and Eve. They have brunch together and talk about whether angels eat (spoiler: they do). Aziraphale begins delivering God's warning: you can stay here as long as you're obedient.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Posted late at night. Please let me know about typos and I will fix!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aziraphael stood outside the Department of Earthly Works, blinking his eyes. He held his hands before him and considered them. Turned eyes left and moved an arm right and <em>he couldn’t see it</em>. He knew it was there but this limited human vision was going to take some getting used to. It would certainly be challenging to fly wearing a human corporation! But the lovely angel in the corporations department had pressed into his mind impressions of how the body worked, so he was competent enough.</p><p>Trying to look at Heaven with only human eyes gave him a headache. Better to get on down to Earth where the environment would be a little less overwhelming. Aziraphale spread six wings – these, at least, hadn’t changed – and took to flight, gliding gently through Heaven. Its great golden gates anticipated him, opening wide to permit his exit.</p><p>He alit at the edge of Heaven and felt twin thrills of both excitement and fear. The vast cosmos stretched before him; planets and stars and all, Earth just one of the globes suspended therein. But this was also the spot where his erstwhile siblings had thrown themselves over the edge after losing the War. He suppressed the feeling of terrible loss that accompanied that memory. Surely it was right, if God had willed it.</p><p>The way to Earth was clearly marked and regularly traveled by other angels. He spread his wings and, sending a brief prayer toward God to offer love and ask for fortitude, he leapt. Thus his first sensation of flying was accompanied by the warm glow of God’s answering love – and the firmness of Her message.</p>
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <strong>Go, Aziraphael. Adam and Eve need friendly advice. Show them how happy they are. Warn them that they have an enemy. Their enemy is not a soldier; they need not be warriors. I gave them free will. Warn them that an enemy is lying to them, and wants them to Fall. Warn them to watch for deceit. So warned, their Fall will be their own choosing.</strong>
  </p>
</blockquote><p>“I shall be worthy of your trust, Lord,” called Aziraphael into the fresh breeze, winging his way between worlds and worlds, toward Earth.</p><p>He flew in from the East, with the near-midday Sun above him. From below he looked like a phoenix, his hair and robe and wings lit up by the golden Sun from behind. He soared among eagles and vultures – golden, gray, black – and shouted joy at them while they crowed in return.</p><p>He touched down on the eastern wall. Four of his wings reconfigured into gilded white robes, the magic accompanied by a bell-like sound and a Heavenly scent. And then he paused, enraptured at Eden.</p><p>To his eyes, Eden was so green – a color rare in Heaven. The greenness resolved into trees of varied habit. Their leaves fluttered in the light, warm breeze, making them shimmer.</p><p>Aziraphael leapt down, letting his remaining pair of wings slow his descent, and walked into the forest. Plants grew and tumbled upon each other, pendulous with flowers and fruits of every color and shape. Their odors – things he would later recognize as cassia, myrrh, balm – filled his nostrils with their earthy spices. Animals, birds, and insects crowded the trees and grasses and waters, making soft noises, flitting from place to place in random assortment.</p><p>Aziraphael didn’t know the names of any of these things – new words floated in his mind, but he didn’t know yet how to connect them to the living things that God had created. Perhaps the humans could teach him, if there was time. He followed a colorful thing that floated in the air, then found a brown creature with four legs and limpid eyes. It allowed him to reach out and touch its fur, and it was so soft, with hard muscle underneath; running his hand the other direction, the fur spiked. The creature nosed at Aziraphale’s hand and nipped with a mobile lip; surprised, Aziraphale laughed, and the creature walked off into the forest.</p><p>Oh, he’d been distracted! To business. He cut off his meandering and felt for the presence of the human inhabitants of the garden. Once focused, he found them easily, following a brook upstream until he found a crude hut made of bent branches, all flowering.</p><p>As he approached, the souls within resolved into two separate ones. Different from angels’ souls, he could instantly tell. They were more tightly connected to the cells and sinews of their physical bodies; as their bodies moved, so did their souls.</p><p>Actually, the cells and sinews of their physical bodies seemed to be connected quite closely to each other’s at the moment.</p><p>“Hello?” he called in his friendliest voice.</p><p>There was a shuffling and giggling inside the bower. A head poked out, covered in tousled dark curls, like Zephon’s. It was followed by a second face. Female, and then male, Aziraphael discerned. Eve, and then Adam.</p><p>Aziraphael loved them instantly. The force of his love briefly overwhelmed him. He had to stop a moment and just experience the new feeling as it washed through his physical body. He felt it quicken his heartbeat, heat his skin, and light up his face; his new mouth spread involuntarily wide in a smile, and his eyes crinkled. The humans had been smiling before, but their faces now also stretched in answering grins.</p><p>“Hello,” Aziraphael said.</p><p>“A blessed visitor!” Adam cried. “Eve! Go to the stores! Bring what we’ve harvested! Crush some grapes! Blessed guest, just a moment!”</p><p>“That’s really not necessary—oh, that’s very kind of you, thank you—” Aziraphael said as Eve bustled, quietly bringing fruits and berries and melons and piling them before him, her dark eyes considering. Then she left again and returned with white and pink flower petals, casting them all around. Finally, she brought forth a garland of tiny white flowers and approached Aziraphael.</p><p>“May I?” she asked. Aziraphael wasn’t sure what she wanted. She held up the garland and mimed ducking her head.</p><p>“Oh!” Aziraphael said, and lowered his head. She draped the garland over it and then knelt down to touch his feet, then her eyes and heart. An intoxicating fragrance rose from the garland.</p><p>For his part, Adam bowed low and said: “Heavenly stranger, please rest with us until the midday heat has passed. It is a great honor that you visit us from Heaven. We are so grateful for this happy place, I and my dearest both.” He smiled adoringly. Eve smiled, too, a little shy.</p><p>Aziraphael held up his hands, a little embarrassed. “Please, don’t make a fuss; God created us both, didn’t She? I hope this is only the first of many times I enjoy the hospitality of your beautiful bower.”</p><p>“Thank you, glorious power. Please sit and sup with us. Will you eat? I’m sorry we can’t offer you better than the best we have picked from Eden. I hope it’s not unsavory to someone as pure as yourself.” The goodwill washed off Adam like ambrosia. His aura was clean and youthful and uncomplicated, simply happy and adoring, and it gave Aziraphael’s corporation funny feelings.</p><p>Aziraphael composed himself with a little bit of condescension, and took on a professorial air. “Whatever God gives to humans must be good enough for angels,” he said as he settled to the grass-covered ground in front of the bower. Adam waited for him to sit, and then followed. “To those of angelic spirit there can be no unpleasant food. We may be pure intellect, not <em>naturally</em> physical like you two, but we still need to eat. We just—well, we accomplish different things with the food we consume. There is Heavenly food in Heaven, of course; it arrives as dew and pearls on the trees and ground each day. But we can turn the grossest of matter into incorporeal substance. It’s more physical creatures who need to be concerned with the purity of their food. And God has made such wondrous bounty here, I think it should compare well with Heaven; I do not plan to be fastidious.”</p><p>As he spoke, Eve was bustling, now pouring juice into cups fashioned (Aziraphael later learned) from bamboo stems. Aziraphael picked one up to sip as he finished his speech, and was unprepared for the overwhelming sensations that accompanied his first taste of Earthly food. The scent hit his nose first, blossoming through his head; the liquid pooled cool in his mouth; its sugar sweetness tasted like liquid happiness; a slight acid sparkled; it slid easily down his throat and refreshed him.</p><p>He exhaled an involuntary <em>aaaah</em> of appreciation, contemplating the cup. “That was marvelous,” he said, enraptured.</p><p>“Eve is clever at mixing fruit juices,” Adam said, reaching out and caressing her thigh. “What did you do today, my love?”</p><p>Eve knelt to participate in the meal and gestured at several fruits in one of the bowls before Aziraphael. “It is made of oranges, with guava, and pulp from the passionfruit,” she explained.</p><p>The words weren’t ones that Aziraphael had heard before, but they slotted into his mind as all of God’s new creations had done. “Orange” was a new color, must have been custom-created for Earth; it made a pleasantly vibrant contrast to the green leaves. Then—“Passionfruit?” he asked, his eyebrows lifting as he processed the meaning of the name..</p><p>“I named it that,” Adam said proudly, “Because when Eve first shared one with me I couldn’t hold back how I felt about her, and we coupled right there.” The two stared devotedly at each other, and then leaned to press their lips together.</p><p>The love flowing off of them was as intoxicating to Aziraphael as the fruit juice had been. It <em>was</em> love, but different; Earthly, physical, the emotions accompanied by a memory joyous pleasure in the pressing of skin upon skin. They parted with one last light kiss.</p><p>“Wonderful,” Aziraphael breathed, his eyes lingering on the softness of their lips, memorizing how their shapes had changed as they’d crushed together.</p><p>Together the three ate, Aziraphael asking Adam and Eve for the newly-bestowed names of the delicious plants. Aziraphael loved everything he ate, savoring the bursts of flavor in his mouth and nose. He could have continued all afternoon, but he saw the humans slowing in their eating and decided to stop also, to be polite. Eve stood to clear away the fruit skins and pits, taking them to a hollow stone where animals gathered, waiting, to eat the remains of their meal.</p><p>“Heavenly friend,” Adam said, “What did you think of our lunch? How does it compare to Heaven’s?”</p><p>To be entirely honest, it had been better than anything he’d eaten in Heaven, but he couldn’t just <em>say</em> that, could he? He retreated into pedantry again. “The Almighty created everything out of one first matter. She gave it various shapes, various density, and for the things that live, various life. Everything exists on a continuum, from lifeless stone, to soil, to root, to stalk, to leaf, to flower, to fruit, to spirit. The food on Earth is made by God just as it is in heaven; as She gave us food, so She gave us the capacity to enjoy it. All living things can convert from baser matter to higher as it fits their nature. As angels, we can convert everything to spirit.” He saw a way to transition to the message he was supposed to be sharing. “As I understand it, humans will also be able to eat the food of angels, when they complete their time on Earth and ascend to Heaven. As long as they obey God, of course. But there’s plenty of time for that. In the meantime, enjoy your happy state on Earth.”</p><p>Adam took Eve’s hand. He exchanged a glance with her. “Blessed guest, we are happy indeed to hear that by steps, we might ascend to Heaven. But, please, could you explain what you mean when you say ‘as long as we obey God?’ Of course we obey God – He formed us from dust, placed us here in this blissful garden, allowed us the pleasure of sleep, and to enjoy Creation all over again when we wake in the morning. What more could I possibly want, that I would disobey any request from God or angel?”</p><p>Aziraphael’s wings fluttered. “Ah. Well, you see, it lately occurred to God that you two might actually not know about a way you could be disobedient, without intending to. That’s why I’m here. I’m here to explain, to help you avoid even the potential of future unpleasantness.”</p><p>Their faces had formed little creases between their eyebrows. Aziraphale didn’t like the feeling associated with that expression. He hastened to reassure them.</p><p>“Don’t worry! I’m here.” He attempted a reassuring smile, and Adam seemed to relax. “You are precious creations of God. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you. I’ll protect you.”</p><p>“Please, divine one, tell us what to do,” Adam said.</p><p>“Please,” Eve said. It was just one word, but her eyes and aura spoke one emotion clearly: she was afraid.</p><p>“Well, it’s this. You, humans, are special and different from angels. God created all of us good and set us in happy places. Me, in Heaven; you, on Earth.” Aziraphael felt a shadow flit across his face, remembering how recently Heaven had been <em>most</em> unhappy. That was all in the past now, with the Fallen gone. He pushed it aside.</p><p>“You do owe God your present happiness. But your future happiness, well, that’s up to you. God made you perfect, but not unchanging. You have intellect, and the ability to plan for the future, and to choose your path. Your service to God must be voluntary, or else it doesn’t count. Just like angels, your happy state holds as long as your obedience holds. We freely serve because we freely love; in this we stand or Fall.”</p><p>He paused, feeling wretched again about the loss of so many angels. What to say about them to these innocent creatures? “Adam, Eve: many angels turned away from loving God. They Fell to disobedience, and so Fell from Heaven, from a high state of bliss to deepest woe.” The anguished cries of wounded angels rang in his memory, along with the shattering sounds of thunder and the enraged roars of Satan and his captains.</p><p>“Thank you for your warning,” Adam said seriously into Aziraphael’s pause. “We’ll be careful. We’ll never forget to love our Maker and obey Him.”</p><p> “How, and why, though?” asked Eve. “How could they? Why would they turn away from God? Disobey Him?” Her aura was troubled, roiling.</p><p>“Yes, I do wonder about that,” said Adam. “I mean—if it’s all right to ask—if not, just say—but it might help us to understand, if we knew what happened in Heaven, to make angels Fall.”</p><p>Aziraphael found himself terribly reluctant to mar the blissful scene of Eden with stories of the terrible War. But Adam was right. To warn him to obey without explaining how the Fallen had strayed no far – really, was that any different than demanding blind obedience? To choose their path, the humans needed to know where those paths led.</p><p>“We have hours and hours until sunset,” Eve said, reaching toward him. Her eyes were beseeching. “Our stores hold plenty of food. You traveled so far, please tell us what we must do.”</p><p>“Of course I will, my dear,” Aziraphale said. He took her hand in his and squeezed it. “Is there a good shady spot you like for storytelling? It’s warm, and the tale’s not a short one.”</p><p>They resettled themselves under the great spreading branches and huge fragrant flowers of a magnolia tree. Eve and Adam leaned together, arms casually around each other, their contact a form of reassurance, Aziraphael understood. So precious; he couldn’t spare them the details, to make sure they understood how the Fall had happened.</p><p>“It started when God made—some management changes,” he began.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The events in this chapter happen in <a href="https://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/book_5/text.shtml">Book 5 of Paradise Lost</a>. God has reasoned that if Satan’s tricks make Adam and Eve fall, it would be because the first humans didn’t understand that lies were a thing. Therefore – even though God knows that the Fall is inevitable, because that’s how They made the universe – They dispatch Raphael, “the sociable Spirit” as Milton calls him, to go warn Adam and Eve about Satan’s propensity to deceit. Having done that, God reasons, the Fall is humanity’s fault, not Theirs.</p><p>(God is a surprisingly unsympathetic character in Paradise Lost.)</p><p>There is of course nothing in Paradise Lost about Raphael going to the corporations department, but in my version, once Aziraphael is awing, the events as described follow Paradise Lost fairly closely from Book V line 251 to line 562. Raphael beholds all of Creation, flies down to Eden, turns six wings into clothing, gazes upon it and thinks it’s great, and goes to find Adam and Eve in their little hut. They all have brunch together with Eve serving. Raphael really does like to eat:</p><p>…they hear, see, smell, touch, taste,<br/>Tasting concoct, digest, assimilate,<br/>And corporeal to incorporeal turn.<br/>For know, whatever was created, needs<br/>To be sustaind and fed; of Elements [ 415 ]<br/>The grosser feeds the purer,...</p><p>That is, in Milton’s headcanon, angels can eat corporeal food and turn it to incorporeal substance.</p><p>I think it’s also worth pointing out this section, in which Milton states clearly (through Raphael) that his headcanon is that angels have free will: </p><p>Myself and all th' Angelic Host that stand [ 535 ]<br/>In sight of God enthron'd, our happie state<br/>Hold, as you yours, while our obedience holds;<br/>On other surety none; freely we serve<br/>Because we freely love, as in our will<br/>To love or not; in this we stand or fall: [ 540 ]<br/>And Som are fall'n, to disobedience fall'n,<br/>And so from Heav'n to deepest Hell; O fall<br/>From what high state of bliss into what woe!</p><p>The next couple of chapters will see Aziraphael/Raphael telling Adam and Eve the story of Satan and Beelzebub’s rebellion, and the War, and their descent to Hell.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. War in Heaven</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Aziraphael tells Adam and Eve about the War in Heaven that led to the Fall of Satan and a third of the angelic Host with him. He tries to explain to Adam and Eve how to avoid Satan's temptations. Eve has questions.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aziraphael listened to the calls of animals, the wind through leafy trees, the gurgling of the nearby stream. He smelled the fruits and flowers of Eden. He beheld its beauty, its rich color, and its adorable pair of humans, God’s precious new creation. And he sighed.</p><p>“It’s so beautiful here. I wish I didn’t have to disturb this peace with such a sad tale. But it’s for your good, and more importantly, God asked me to.” How to do it, though? These humans were so corporeal. How to explain spiritual war to creatures so entirely bound to physical matter? How did he even explain war to peaceful, innocent beings like these?</p><p>They looked at him expectantly. Aziraphael composed himself. He could do this. Gabriel had faith in him.</p><p>“One day, God called all the angels in Heaven to assemble. ‘Hear all ye Angels, Progeny of Light, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, Virtues, Powers, hear My decree,’ She said.” Aziraphael’s face glowed as he remembered that call, and the innumerable throng of angels who responded. It had been glorious, for one Heavenly day.</p><p>“God told us She had been working on a new project, that is to say, you. Earth, and humans. And a fine job She did on that, too.” He smiled. Adam openly smiled back.</p><p>“We were all very excited to work on Earth. But then God told us something else. She said She foresees a, how should I say, minor difficulty. In the far distant future. No concern of yours. It will require divine intervention, very special divine intervention. Technically, it will require God, but God can’t leave Heaven, you see. So God needed to, um, deputize an angel, who could act—as God—here, on Earth. And she picked one.”</p><p>He paused, recalling the bittersweet moment. It had been surprising. Aziraphael had been happy, as they all were, as they always were whenever God presented them with a fresh creation. They’d been naïve about what would come.</p><p>“We had a lovely party. We danced with the planets and stars, and then set out banquet tables and ate and drank the food of Heaven – oh, just wait until you taste it, I mean, I hope it’s very long until you do, I hope you have very long lives here, but the nectar and fruit and flowers and wine….” He trailed off in blissful remembrance, his eyes shut, licking his lips.</p><p>Eve coughed quietly.</p><p>“Oh, sorry! Where was I? Well. It was a wonderful party, and then we were all quite tired, and we lay down to sleep together, and it is so peaceful to sleep in Heaven. But one of us—well, he woke up early, because he was unhappy with God.”</p><p>It felt transgressive even to say that. Aziraphael glanced up and directed a burst of wordless prayer and love. <em>Not me, Lord! It’s Satan I’m talking about</em>, he thought.</p><p>“He was an archangel. One of the highest angels. One of the very first She made. He was so beautiful, I’ll never understand how this all happened.” He wrung his hands. “I suppose that’s one of the messages I must tell you. Beauty doesn’t necessarily mean goodness. But oh, he was brilliant. He shone so brightly, we called him the Morning Star. We don’t call him that anymore. I can’t tell you his name, because She un-named them when—oh, I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll just call him the Envious Archangel for now. Because that’s what it was; he was consumed with Envy for Her deputy.”</p><p>“What is ‘envy?’” Eve asked.</p><p>“Oh, it’s a bad thing. It’s a feeling, where you see someone has something that you desire, and you dislike them because they have what you don’t.”</p><p>Adam’s brow furrowed. “Why don’t they just share? Look at the bounty God gave us.” He spread his arms to indicate the abundance of Eden. “There’s enough for everyone.”</p><p>“Yes, you’re right about that. But power and rule don’t work that way,” Aziraphael said. “Some have power over others; it’s just the way things are. Angels aren’t supposed to be able to fight that. It’s in our nature to obey God. God decreed that there would be ranks of angels. For me, to obey the archangel Gabriel is to obey God. I can’t even imagine how not to obey. It’s impossible. Somehow, the Envious Archangel did. He was upset with the change in management, and he started telling others the same.”</p><p>Aziraphael fell silent for a moment, thinking how to proceed. “I didn’t see it happen, at first,” he said. “The Envious Archangel woke before the rest of us, which was strange in itself. He woke his dearest friend, a Cherub.” How to name Beelzebub? Aziraphael recalled how they had always seemed so languid, though they had been able to move fast enough when the battle was on. Maybe he should stick with the theme of the Seven Deadlies.</p><p>“Their name is forbidden now, so I’ll call them the Slothful Cherub. Both of them woke all the legions of angels under their command and ordered them to leave God’s presence and return to Envy’s castle in the North of Heaven. This was a third of all the angels. They were all obedient–it’s what we are, we can’t help it—so they followed the Envious Archangel, and the rest of us woke to see a third of the Host flying away, following that false morning star.”</p><p>His eyes were burning. He wondered if there was something wrong with his corporation.</p><p>“We all turned to God to see what She would do.” <em>We wanted her to fix it,</em> Aziraphael thought. <em>I don’t know why She didn’t fix it</em>. He squashed the thought. She had a Plan, She always did. “She told us to prepare to be attacked by the rebellious Archangels. To arm ourselves, and be ready to defend the mountain on which God’s throne sat. To prepare for war.”</p><p>“What is ‘war’?” Adam asked.</p><p>Oh, dear. “We had to ask the same thing,” Aziraphael said miserably. “But it turned out She had prepared for this. Of course She had. She is the Prime Mover; She knows all that has ever happened and all that ever will happen. She always has Her Plan. We learned that the games we had been playing with swords – um, swords are sharp, cutty things – the games were preparing us to use the swords on other angels.”</p><p>“Use the swords to do what?” Adam asked.</p><p>“To wound them. To open holes in them. To make them hurt. Ultimately, to make them – not exist, anymore.” The thunder of war deafened his mind’s ear for a moment.</p><p>Eve looked at him in horror and cuddled closer to Adam for reassurance. Aziraphael felt wretched. He decided to skip forward a bit.</p><p>“The next part, I was not there for, but we heard about it, from a Seraph named Abdiel.”<a href="#_edn1" id="_ednref1" name="_ednref1">[i]</a> Here, at least, was something he could smile about. “Abdiel is wonderful. I hope you will get to meet her. She is all dark, intense, rich colors, quite the contrast to me. So intense, and such sharp intelligence and wit, such virtue.</p><p>“Abdiel told us that the Envious Archangel gave a speech to all his legions, ordering them not to accept the rule of God’s Deputy. He’s very good at speeches, very wicked. He argued that God had changed the rules on them, making it impossible to obey properly. Abdiel said they were all afraid and confused, not knowing who to follow; their commander, or God? Abdiel, alone among all of those under the Slothful Cherub’s command, stood up to show how the Archangel’s words were false.”</p><p>Aziraphael fixed the humans’ fearful eyes with his: first Adam’s, then Eve’s. “Abdiel tried to convince them not to follow Envy. She had it right: ultimately, there is no one to obey but God. It doesn’t matter what She says; Her Word is law. More than law, it is righteous. Remember that, please. It’s so very important.”</p><p>Aziraphael broke eye contact and looked away at the peace of Eden. A mixed group of brown and tawny creatures slept in a pile in the sun in the heat of the afternoon. He envied the animals a little for their mental simplicity, just now.</p><p>“Abdiel failed to win her argument. She said the Envious Archangel’s legions were echoing his words and circling round her, threatening her. But she didn’t break. She knew that loving and obeying God would save her. And it did. She escaped to tell us everything.” Abdiel had been incandescent with fury when she’d returned, all six dark wings aflame with it, as she reported Satan’s blasphemy and lies.</p><p>“Why didn’t the other angels listen to Seraph Abdiel?” Eve asked.</p><p>“I wish they had! I don’t know,” Aziraphael replied sorrowfully. “It’s like a sickness took hold of the Envious Archangel, and with his voice he could make other angels suffer the same. He fomented envy and doubt and pride and greed and wrath among all those good angels with his voice. They’d never heard such lies before, they just didn’t understand. That’s why I’m here, warning you. If he tries to talk to you, you must know that he’s lying. He can’t bear God creating and loving new and beautiful things. He will tempt you to disobey God. He wants you to Fall.”</p><p>“What does it mean, ‘Fall?’” Adam asked.</p><p>“It’s terrible,” Aziraphael said, “And it’s what’s coming next.” How much of the story did he have to tell, really? He was supposed to be delivering a warning. Perhaps he could gloss over much of the battle, just offer them some examples to guide their actions toward good and away from evil.</p><p>“When Abdiel came back, we hoped that more would follow, but they didn’t. God praised her. She said, ‘Servant of God, well hast thou fought the better fight, who alone has maintained truth against the rebellious multitudes. Your word was mightier than their armies.’ Words are so important to God, you see; it’s with words that She creates everything. She was reminding us of the power of words, of steadfast argument.”</p><p>“And yet, there was a fight?” Eve asked.</p><p>Aziraphael nodded. “God called for Michael, prince of the celestial army, and Gabriel second to her, to gather Heaven’s troops, to gather our swords and armor and machines of war. Things we’d built that could cut and hurt each other, and keep us from being hurt. We’d only just readied ourselves when the Envious Archangel arrived with his army. And he started talking again, arguing.”</p><p>“No!” Adam cried, clutching Eve to him. “Did he get more angels to join him?”</p><p>“No, he didn’t! It was Abdiel who saved the day again!” Aziraphael said. “She really gave him what for! They had words, and then what do you think she did, she raised her sword and smote him right on the top of his helmeted head! He staggered fully ten steps back and fell to the ground!”</p><p>“Oh, good for her!” said Adam, clapping his hands.</p><p>“I don’t imagine that convinced anybody of what Abdiel was trying to say,” said Eve.</p><p>“Alas, it didn’t,” said Aziraphael, sobering. It had been a shocking sight, archangel against archangel, and he’d feared Michael as much in that moment as he’d feared Satan. “From that moment, we had a new name for the Envious Archangel. We call him the Adversary, because that’s truly when his army became opposed to Heaven’s army, and the battle began. It was awful.”</p><p>What must he say about the battle? He couldn’t describe it to these innocent creatures, couldn’t name all the new and terrible miseries that the War had brought into being. Misery itself had never existed before the War and yet, here he was, in Eden, feeling miserable just from the memory of War.</p><p>“There was a lot of fighting. Most of a day of it. And then, across the battlefield, the Adversary spotted Michael,” Aziraphael said quietly. “They were brother and sister, you know. Among the first of anything that God created in all of existence. And he went to attack her.” The battlefield had seemed to still in that moment, as Satan had streaked toward Michael, who was laying waste to all around her with her massive God-given sword.</p><p>“Satan swung his sword at her, but she met it. Her sword had God’s might behind it. It sheared the Adversary’s sword right in half, and it kept going, and fell into his side, cutting a horrible wound there. His scream of pain I’ll never forget; he made all of us suffer a bit of what he suffered.”</p><p>Adam held his hand to his right side, over his missing rib. Eve put her hand on his, just there.</p><p>“Was that—the end of him?” she asked.</p><p>“No. For better or for worse, angels are not so easy to end as that,” Aziraphael answered. “For you, every one of your organs is vital – without any one of them, you could not live. For us, all the vitality we need is in every part of us. We can’t die except by total annihilation. In fact, our bodies aren’t essential at all. We can dress ourselves in bodies as we please – any color, shape, or size – or go without. When this war was happening, no one had human bodies; it all happened just before God had made humans.”</p><p>It would be so pleasant to keep talking about God’s creativity, but that wasn’t Aziraphael’s job at the moment. He hauled himself back to the story. “Once Michael wounded the Adversary, the battle turned in Heaven’s favor. Each of Heaven’s archangels matched one of the rebel leaders – Uriel and Raphael and Gabriel and Abdiel and Ramiel, they all began winning their fights. It looked like it might all be over in a day, but they held on.</p><p>“The war lasted three of Heaven’s days. The Envious Archangel’s legions spent the first night building terrible machines of war by his command. We were almost caught by surprise the second morning. Thank God for Zophiel’s sharp eyes and fast wings; he roused us in time to set our shields. Even so, the adversary’s machines threw thunderbolts and lightning, it was all very frightening, and caused grievous harm.” Now it was Aziraphael clutching his side. Funny how the agonizing wound he’d received in the battle translated to this human body, a corporeal ghost of a spiritual injury.</p><p>“We had no weapons that could fight against the rebels’ machines. But Michael saved us. She called upon us to lift the very mountains of Heaven, to create walls to ward us, and then to throw them at our foes.”</p><p>Eve looked at the beauty around her. “The angels destroyed the mountains of Heaven?”</p><p>“Not destroyed. But it was, for a time, very damaged. We are still rebuilding. You can see why I feel so grateful to be in your garden just now. I am so blessed to have been given the opportunity to speak with you here. I’m sorry it has to be about such terrible things.”</p><p>“Don’t be sorry,” Adam said, reaching out and patting his knee. “You are obedient to God, and that is good. Tell us, how did Heaven win in the end?”</p><p>“God, of course,” Aziraphael said. “On the third day, She gave the Heavenly Host additional powers, and poured Her own power into Her Deputy. If the Adversary’s weapons were terrible, now Heaven’s weapons were ten times as bad. The rebels pulled the remains of the mountains down upon themselves to try to find shelter, but She was relentless.</p><p>“From then it was a rout. The rebels broke and ran. I didn’t see it; I’d been wounded and couldn’t keep up. My friend Ithuriel told me about it later. She said they pursued the rebels right to the crystal wall of Heaven, and then the wall opened inward and revealed a gap, a bottomless pit. They tried not to run off the edge, but they were harried from behind, and they all began to jump until they were all gone. It all happened very fast in the end, or so Ithuriel told me.”</p><p>Aziraphael looked down at his lap. Adam’s hand was still on his knee. It felt soft and warm. He took it in both of his, and felt his sadness dispelled a little by Adam’s simple goodness. “Again, I’m so sorry to have to tell such an awful story. But I had to, to warn you just how dangerous the Adversary is. It only took him a day to make a third of all the angels Fall. That’s what we call them now, the Fallen. We weren’t even sure what happened to them, whether they still existed, until we learned you’d been visited. And now we know that the Adversary has not given up on making others in God’s creation fall along with him.”</p><p>Eve chewed on her lip. “Your story fills me with doubt, I have to admit,” she said. “If this Adversary is so powerful that he can lead a third of Heaven out of obedience, what hope have my love and I against him?”</p><p>“I – ah – well – that is to say—” In truth, Aziraphael couldn’t think what to say. She had a point. He regrouped. “Honestly, I am not sure. But whenever I feel unsure, I can always remember to trust God. God loves all She created. God sent me to warn you. Have faith in her, and obey, and everything will turn out all right.”</p><p>“Thank you, blessed visitor, you reassure me,” Adam said. But Eve’s gaze was still troubled; her face held a question. Aziraphael knew what it was, and hoped she wouldn’t ask it, because he had no answer for her.</p><p>
  <em>If God loved all She created, how could She have let Satan’s obedient angels Fall with him?</em>
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Aziraphael’s story in this chapter covers <i>Paradise Lost</i> <a href="https://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/book_5/text.shtml">Book 5</a> line 563 through the end and all of <a href="https://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/pl/book_6/text.shtml">Book 6</a>, though I skipped over a lot of the details of the War and added conversational reactions from Adam and Eve to break up the story. </p><p>The being I’m referring to as “God’s Deputy” is the Son (as in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost). The Son is not (yet) Jesus. The Son is a bizarre character in <i>Paradise Lost</i>, not really separate from God at all. They’re like two halves of one whole, always in communication with each other. He and God have strange snarky bro-y conversations with each other. God can’t leave his throne but the Son can; it’s an arrangement kind of like Picard and Riker in <i>Star Trek: The Next Generation</i>. The Son does all of God’s away missions. He’s the one who leads the angels of Heaven in war, and he’s battle-thirsty and triumphant in ways that don’t seem anything like the peace-loving character in the Bible. I’m eliding his identity as the Son in my version because Good Omens is arguably much more a Jewish story than a Christian one and I don’t want to have the Son in this Heaven. It doesn’t need to be the Son to supply the motivation for Satan’s fall; it just needs to be anything other than an archangel elevated over his rank.</p><p>Satan’s conversation with Beelzebub always seems a little closer than commander to captain. Waking Beelzebub, Satan says: “Sleepst thou, Companion dear, what sleep can close / Thy eye-lids?” Earlier in the poem, Milton describes Beelzebub as Satan’s “neerest Mate” (I.192). Draw your own conclusions about their relationship. I certainly plan to.</p><p>The character of Abdiel here is more or less as Milton wrote her except that Milton refers to all the angels as “he” even though in his universe they are also genderless. I decided to mix things up with angelic pronouns as the director did for TV <i>Omens</i>, though of course all the angels are canonically genderless. That detail will become important in a later chapter.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I was inspired to do this by Anthony Oliveira's <i>Paradise Lost</i> podcast, "<a href="https://www.patreon.com/meakoopa">The Devil's Party</a>." It's great; every Good Omens fan should listen to it to understand the canon. From Book 5 it became clear that the character of Raphael in <i>Paradise Lost</i> <b>is</b> Aziraphale. I hope that by translating from Milton's 17th century poetry to more modern language that some other folks will enjoy the story as much as I did! I'll be updating this as I have time to work through and translate the text.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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